George Bancroft (actor)
Encyclopedia : G : GE : GEO : George Bancroft (actor)
- This article is about the actor. For the historian and statesman see George Bancroft.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy. He left the Navy to enter show business as a theatre manager. He worked in a minstrel show for a time before trying his luck on Broadway.
Bancroft's first starring role was in James Cruze's Pony Express (1925), and the next year in Old Ironsides, but he went from historical pictures to the gritty world of the underground in such films as Underworld (1927) and Docks of New York (1928). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1929 for Thunderbolt.
Budd Schulberg, son of Paramount executive B.P. Schulberg, recalled in his autobiography ‘Moving Pictures’ how fame and fortune inflated Bancroft's ego to monumental proportions. Schulberg particularly treasured the moment when the actor refused to obey his director's orders that he fall down after being shot by the villain, explaining, "One bullet can't kill Bancroft!"
When his particular screen type became commonplace in the early 30s, Bancroft's stardom faded. By 1934 he had slipped to being a supporting actor, although he still appeared in such classics as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Angels With Dirty Faces and Stagecoach.
In 1942 he left Hollywood to be a rancher. He died in Santa Monica, California and was interred there in the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.